A Colourful Apostasy?

A few months back I began to see signs around town for the Hindu celebration of Holi (The "Festival of Colors").  What was the purpose of the holiday?  No idea.  What was the symbolism?  Spring perhaps, but still not sure.  What were the practices at the festival?  I had down that we would be throwing colored cornstarch at one another, but not much else beyond that.  So armed with virtually no information I thought I would give it a go - much like running for a political office.

Getting to the festival was not an easy feat.  You might think that a Hindu festival in the heart of Mormondom might be like hosting a punk rock concert at a rodeo, but you would be incorrect.  The crowds were massive.  This meant that we had to walk a long way to get to the gates.

On the way in there, were a couple of people chanting sayings about Jesus being the son of God and that we needed to accept him ('check' and 'check,' I was apparently good by those standards).  Then a few feet away someone else was handing out color themed postcards. I took one and was surprised to see a message on the back that read something like this:

"Did you attend Holi?  You just worshiped at the temple of Krishna.  You have denied Jesus and need to repent for rejecting the Son of God"

The card also had the name of a church on it and I was glad it was not my church.  What came to my mind was "No.  I intend to throw pretty colors and complete strangers (mostly fellow Mormons) and have a fun time doing so."  I think I know when I am worshiping a different God.

I have been to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and to a Hindu temple in India.  I attended mass at St. Paul's in London and have been to Buddhist temples in Mongolia.  I even attended a Passover dinner hosted by a Jewish Argentinian atheist - who also happens to be a dear friend of mine.  Through all of these experiences, I have never felt like I have denied my own faith.  To the contrary, my personal faith has grown.  I believe in a God who loves all mankind and hears all their prayers.  We each worship to the best of our knowledge; and that is both inter-faith and intra-faith.  I hold that we are judged according to the truth which we posses and how well we act upon that truth.

One of aspect of my own religion of which I am proud is found in the 11th Article of Faith:

"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our  conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." (including that practice of throwing colored cornstarch).

To me this includes an inherent obligation to respect others religions and their practices, as well as an invitation to have fun with those of other faiths (though I wish I could take off all of the Jewish holidays).  So feeling that I was good with my God, I was ready to throw some colors with, and more to the point, at my kids.

From what I could ascertain, we were supposed to chant something and throw the colors into the air at a certain time each hour.  That was good in theory, but we had colors in hand and we had lots of targets walking about so it was really just a free-for-all; colors flew this way and that.  From what I could gather, the more attractive you were, the more people (especially the opposite gender) would throw colors at you.  This explains why Olivia was caked (photo above) and I was mostly self-colored (except for a few middle-aged men who threw colors at me,  I don't want to talk about it).

It was impressive how fast you went from white clothes to tie-dyed.  

And the real kindpeople would at least warn you "close your eyes" before they spike you in the face with a fist full of purple.

Whatever the official customs were supposed to be for this Indian Hindu holiday, I am sure the Utah Christian crowd did plenty that was either non-customary or just plain old wrong.  Still, no one seemed to care.  The Hindus were just happy to share their festival, even if we monkeyed it up.  All in all, it was a good lesson for me in religious tolerance and acceptance.  So perhaps the next time someone comes to my church service in jeans and a T-shirt, or claps at a musical number in sacrament meeting, or belts out a "hallelujah" in the middle of a church talk, I will do as the Utah County Hindu do and smile, just be happy that they are there to share our faith with us.